Digital Game Artist Certificate

Become a professional video game artist with this online game artist training course, designed to equip you with the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed in this creative and lucrative industry. Focus on developing core competencies in areas such as digital art, 3D art, modeling, character design, and environmental art design. You will learn essential techniques for jobs related to game art, including modeling game props and characters, importing elements into game-specific software, and animating game assets.

Apply the concepts learned in the course by working with popular game development platforms such as Unreal Engine 4 and Unity 5+. These platforms are widely used in the video game industry and will provide you with hands-on experience in translating your artistic skills into practical game design.

In addition to software and game-related techniques, this game art course also covers broader topics that can help boost your career such as general design principles and concept art. You will learn the fundamental principles that distinguish good art from great art and the key social aspects necessary for ongoing growth and professional development in the field. By the end of the game artist course, you will have acquired a diverse set of employable skills and a solid understanding of the key components of 3D art and environmental art.

What you will learn

• How to improve your game art abilities
• Prop, environment, and character art/animation
• Proficiency in popular 2D and 3D modeling software
• Modeling and texturing techniques to effectively bring your designs to life
• The fundamental principles of creating exceptional art

How you will benefit

• Identify the specific skills needed for your professional game art projects
• Engage in hands-on development to practice and improve your new animation skills
• Assess your artistic ability and identify areas for improvement
• Evaluate the effectiveness of your new skills in real-world projects

1. 3D Modeling I
   1. Getting Started
   2. Basic Blender Interface
   3. Viewport Configuration and Layout
   4. Display Settings and Menu Rollouts
   5. Select, Undo/Redo, and Space Search
   6. Rendering an Image
   7. Viewport Controls and Settings
   8. Transforms and User Preferences
   9. Select and Deselect
   10. Primitives
   11. Append
   12. Primitive Properties
   13. 3D Cursor and Object Position
   14. Edit and Object Mode
   15. Grease Pencil
   16. Pivots and Object Origin
   17. 3D Cursor
   18. Transform Orientation and Duplicate
   19. Polygon, Vertex, and Edge
   20. Object Mode Keys
   21. Edit Mode Keys
   22. Limit Selection to Visible
   23. Viewport Shading and Smoothing
   24. Insert, Delete, Dissolve Edge
   25. Edge Split and Create Edge
   26. Merge
   27. User Preferences and Key Commands
   28. Outliner
   29. Modifiers
   30. Piling Modifiers
   31. Snaps (Edit and Object Mode)
   32. Snap to Grid
   33. Splines
   34. Rendering Splines
   35. Splines in Edit Mode
   36. Curve Modifier
   37. Path Deform Process
   38. Bevel with Contour Controls
   39. Lathe
   40. Mirror and Symmetrize
   41. Insert
   42. Intersect Tool
   43. Fill, Bridge, and Grid Fill
   44. Bend
   45. Pivot Positioning
   46. Fill
   47. Grease Pencil Revisited
   48. Duplicate and Linked Duplicate
   49. Appending and Saving Selected
   50. Layers
   51. Boolean
   52. Smooth Shading
   53. Arrays
   54. Solidify
   55. Subdivide
   56. Proportional Editing
   57. Mesh Deform
   58. Basic Light Settings
   59. Basic Edge Placement for Sub D Surfaces
   60. Final Practical
2. Elements of Visual Design
   1. Getting Started
   2. Balance
   3. Unity
   4. Gradation
   5. Harmony
   6. Dominance
   7. Repetition
   8. Contrast
   9. Gestalt
   10. Space
   11. Symmetry and Asymmetry
   12. Gathering and Filtering
   13. Style Guides
   14. Form and Structure
   15. Silhouette and Visual Reference
   16. Tonal Studies
   17. Light
   18. Ball Study
   19. Visual Depth
   20. Tactile Texture / Visual Texture / Pattern
   21. Volume
   22. Visual Narrative I
   23. Visual Narrative II
   24. Final Practical
3. Texture Maps and Digital Painting
   1. Getting Started
   2. Photoshop Texture Maps
   3. Custom Brushes
   4. Style Sheets and Ortho Concepts
   5. Creature Design
   6. DDO, NDO, and 3DO in Photoshop
   7. Quixel
   8. Map Types
   9. What is Physically Based Rendering?
   10. Ambient Occlusion (AO) Maps
   11. ID Maps
   12. Using the Quixel Suite
   13. Using NDO I
   14. Using 3DO I
   15. NDO Practical
   16. Accessing Material ID Links
   17. Using DDO I
   18. Saving DDO Smart Materials
   19. Using DDO II
   20. Using DDO III
   21. Create Base (Albedo / Specular / Reflection / AO / Normal)
   22. Lowering Preview Resolution and Viewing IDs in Real-Time
   23. Combining Normal Information
   24. Layers and Blending Modes in DDO
   25. The Mask Editor and Mask Paint
   26. Brush Combining in Photoshop and Blender
   27. Grouping Layers
   28. Final Practical
4. 3D Modeling II
   1. Getting Started
   2. Basic Photoshop
   3. Tile Texture
   4. Wacom Tablet Properties
   5. Layers
   6. Lights
   7. Sizing and Saving Texture Maps
   8. Texel Density
   9. Basic UV Unwrap
   10. The UV Editor
   11. Adding Maps to Objects
   12. Auto and Smart Unwrap
   13. To Sphere
   14. Unwrap Follow Active Quads
   15. Setting Seams for UVW Unwrap
   16. Smoothing and UV Elements
   17. Element Selection
   18. Positioning of Unwrap Elements
   19. Weld, Stitch, and Breaking UV Elements
   20. Relaxing UV Vertices and Elements
   21. Packing UV Elements
   22. Mesh Smooth and Edge Crease
   23. Cycles in Blender
   24. Texture Paint
   25. Basic Sculpt
   26. Baking ID Maps
   27. Baked Textures
   28. Creating Normal Maps
   29. Sub-D Modeling Intro
   30. Final Practical
5. Elements of Digital Design
   1. Getting Started
   2. Stylized 3d Character
   3. Man Made Prop
   4. 3d Tree
   5. Underwater Vehicle
6. 3D Modeling III
   1. Getting Started
   2. Anatomy (Hands)
   3. Anatomy (Feet)
   4. Anatomy (Head)
   5. Anatomy (Arm, Leg)
   6. Anatomy (Chest, Back)
   7. Anatomy (Creature - Cat)
   8. Anatomy (Creature - Horse)
   9. Anatomy (Bird)
   10. Anatomy (Creature - Dinosaur)
   11. Anatomy (Structural Design - Wings)
   12. Edge Flow, Relaxed Edge Flow
   13. Anatomy and Edge Flow
   14. Supporting Edges (Structural)
   15. Supporting Edges (Curved Mesh)
   16. Mirror and Edge Flow
   17. Weighted Vertices
   18. Armature in 3d (Skin Modifier)
   19. Edge Flow for Animated Meshes
   20. Fixing Texture Seams
   21. Digital Sculpting
   22. Solidify to Set Up Clothing
   23. Script UV Squares Master
   24. Script Mesh Align to G Pencil
   25. Final Practical
7. 3D Sculpture
   1. Getting Started
   2. Orthographic Planes
   3. Alpha Settings and Transparency
   4. X-Ray
   5. Blocking Out the Leg
   6. Adding the Mirror Modifier
   7. Defining the Back of the Neck
   8. Creating the Feet
   9. Creating the Head I
   10. Creating the Head II
   11. Creating the Hands I
   12. Creating the Hands II
   13. Creating the Arms
   14. Creating the Toes
   15. Eyes and Teeth
   16. Final Base Mesh (Ready for Sculpt)
   17. The Multiresolution Modifier
   18. Setting Up the Sculpt Menu
   19. Laying Down Clay Strips
   20. Refining the Sculpt
   21. Sculpting Details
   22. Duplicate Mesh, Create Low and High Variation
   23. Spaced (Relax) Vertices and Tight Mesh Areas
   24. Texture Projections
   25. Projection Snaps and Retopo
   26. Final Practical
8. Sub-D Modeling
   1. Getting Started
   2. Add/Delete Edge Loops to Define Volumes
   3. Unwrapping Separate Objects (Sub-Objects)
   4. Baking Normal Maps (Blender)
   5. Baking Normal Maps (XNormal)
   6. Apply Normal Maps to Mesh
   7. Texture Paint Mode and Brushes
   8. Mirror in Paint Mode
   9. Stencils
   10. UV Unwrap Guidelines
   11. Normal Map Errors and Extreme Stretching
   12. Normal Map Elements (XYZ, Color, Designation)
   13. Additional Projects
   14. Final Practical
9. Digital Lighting and Game Engines
   1. Getting Started
   2. New Project and UI Overview
   3. Viewport Navigation
   4. View Modes and Show Flags
   5. Placing Objects in a Level
   6. Content Browser
   7. Material Creation I
   8. Material Creation II
   9. Basic Lighting
   10. Basic Blueprints
   11. Lights and Settings
   12. Shadows
   13. Light Behavior I
   14. Light Behavior II
   15. Three Point Lighting
   16. Time of Day Lighting
   17. Translucency and Projections
   18. Game Engine Lighting I
   19. Game Engine Lighting II
   20. Final Practical
10. Character Design and Animation
    1. Getting Started
    2. Modeling the Base Mesh
    3. Sculpting the Character
    4. Retopology
    5. UV Mapping and Texture Baking
    6. Texture Painting
    7. Rigging the Character
    8. Creating Animation Cycles
    9. Setting Up in Unity
    10. Final Practical
11. (CAPSTONE) Final Practical and Portfolio
    1. Final Practical and Essay
    2. Portfolio Development
    3. Career/Next Steps Consultation

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

• This course can be taken on either a PC or Mac.
• 3 Button Mouse (with wheel)
• These supplementary materials are recommended but not required:
  • Pressure sensitive tablet (e.g., Wacom)
  • Quixel Mixer
  • Various thickness black markers
  • Sketching pencils
  • 12 color pack of pens

Software Requirements:

• PC: Windows 8 or later.
• Mac: macOS 12 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Blender 2015 or later
• Adobe Photoshop CS6+ (not included in enrollment) or GIMP/Paint.NET (free)
• Unreal Engine 4
• Unity 5+
• Adobe Acrobat Reader .
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

• Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Prerequisites:

Basic computer literacy and software installation.

Christian Bradley

Christian Bradley is the Director of Curriculum Development for Digital Media at the Art Institute of California, Orange County campus. He was as an instructor and Academic Director of Game Art and Design at the Art Institute of California, San Diego from 2003 to 2015. For more than twenty years, Bradley was an environment artist and texture artist with more than 35 commercial video game titles for PC, and Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo consoles in his portfolio. He has worked at Interplay, the Dreamers Guild Studios, and the Collective Studios. Some previous clients include Activision, Digital Extremes, and Legend Entertainment.

What is the average salary of a game artist?

According to Glassdoor, the average salary of a game artist is $65,045 per year in the U.S., with a total average salary of $72,289 per year. The estimated additional pay is $7,243 per year. Additional pay could include a cash bonus, commission, tips, and profit sharing.

Does this course prepare you for a certification?

No.

When can I start the course?

This course is open enrollment, so you can register and start the course as soon as you are ready. Access to your course can take 24-48 business hours.

How long does it take to complete this course?

This course is self-paced and open enrollment, so you can start when you want and finish at your own pace. When you register, you'll receive eighteen (18) months to complete the course.

What if I don't have enough time to complete my course within the time frame provided?

The time allotted for course completion has been calculated based on the number of course hours. However, if you are unable to complete the course, contact the student advising team to see what options you may have available to work out a suitable completion date. Please note that an extension fee may be charged.

What kind of support will I receive?

Our courses are designed to accommodate various learning preferences. Depending on the course structure, you may get different forms of support. Self-paced courses are designed to be user-friendly and independent, minimizing the need for external support. In courses with instructors, our direct platform support feature includes opportunities for questions, discussions, and remediation, with email and phone support available for select courses. Our student advising team is available to guide you on program requirements and administrative requests, but they do not provide assistance with course content. Our goal is to provide you with the necessary support for success, whether it's through self-paced exploration, direct communication, or guidance from our advising team.

What happens when I complete the course?

Upon successful completion of the course, you will be awarded a Certificate of Completion.

Am I guaranteed a job?

This course will provide you with the skills you need to obtain an entry-level position in most cases. Potential students should always do research on the job market in their area before registering.

Can I get financial assistance?

This course is non-credit, so it does not qualify for federal aid, FAFSA and Pell Grant. In some states, vocational rehab or workforce development boards will pay for qualified students to take our courses. Additionally, some students may qualify for financial assistance when they enroll, if they meet certain requirements. Financing is available from select schools. Learn more about financial assistance.

How can I get more information about this course?

If you have questions that are not answered on our website, representatives are available via LIVE chat. You can also call us at 1-877-221-5151 during regular business hours to have your questions promptly answered. If you are visiting us during non-business hours, please send us a question using the "Contact Us" form.

The program was extremely professional, and the support was over the top! With so much information to pass on, the program did it flawlessly.